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The layman cannot undertake to refrain from the intentional killing of innocent beings when there is a proper necessary cause for doing it. And so again the protection to life is reduced to 1. Therefore the protection which a layman can undertake to afford to life is, in comparison with that afforded by the monk, as I is to 16.
The layman, then, can undertake to refrain from killing innocent moving living beings intentionally when he has no proper necessary cause. So the
FIRST VOW OF THE LAYMAN is : “I shall not kill a moving living being with determined "intention when it is innocent, without à proper necessary “cause or purpose". Virtues and vices are states of the individual and
can never be transmitted or transferred Incidental.
from one person to another. Each person develops his own state of virtue, just as he does his own knowledge. You cannot impart virtue to another person, you cannot inherit virtue (in the sense of receiving it). You cannot inherit knowledge or impart knowledge. You can supply a person with the means (such as books or lectures) whereby he can develop his own knowledge.
ATICHĀRAS. Now we come to the things which are partial transgressions of this first vow.
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